This patent is directed to an apparatus and method for a gaming tournament including a tournament host capable of hosting a gaming tournament among numerous players located at the gaming units of their choosing and capable of real-time, tournament event driven interaction with the numerous players during the gaming tournament. Numerous patents have been issued directed to online tournament games. One such patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,486 issued to Walker et al., describes a method and system for a distributed electronic tournament system which allows remotely located players to be identified via a player tracking system, and allows the identified players to participate in tournaments such as chess, bridge, computer golf games, poker and the like from their homes. In addition to player tracking, the database, maintained at a central location, enables registration of players, acceptance of entry fees, and coordination of prize money.
Another patent directed toward online tournament games, U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,648, issued to Guinn et al., describes an apparatus and method for an automated tournament gaming system utilizing a computer network coupled to a number of gaming machines. The ‘Guinn patent also provides for a multi-site progressive automated tournament. The automation is provided by a central server computer coupled to a tournament schedule computer.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,613 issued to Marnell, describes a gambling parlor configured to allow an operator to provide video programming, selected from a menu, to monitors mounted adjacent to the gaming machines of the gaming parlor. The operator is outfitted with a variety of audio and video entertainment items including a VCR, an audio tape deck, a camera trained on the operator, a microphone and commercial television broadcasting capability. A player, while gaming, may then select to be entertained by one of the audio or video entertainment items via the nearest video monitor.
Typically, each of the conventional gaming units used in a gaming tournament have been provided with a display unit that is capable of generating video images, a coin or bill acceptor, and a controller with a memory and a processor that controls the overall operation of the gaming unit. The controller was programmed to allow a person to make a wager, to cause video images to be generated on the display unit, to determine an outcome of the video gambling game, and to determine a value payout associated with the outcome of the video gambling game. Each of the conventional gaming units also were programmed to display video images representing a video gambling game, which included a number of user-selectable video gambling games including video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno, video bingo, video pachinko games, video card games, video games of chance, and combinations thereof.